Groucho As Commie

Published: Thursday, October 15, 1998

IT IS AS IF the FBI were out to play a straight man for Groucho: starting a file in the 1950s on the leering, cigar-puffing comedian and today still keeping some of it secret "in the interest of national security and foreign policy."

Add Groucho Marx, he with the jumpy eyebrows and shoe brush mustache, to the list of well-known Americans whose lives and behavior drew the scrutiny of J. Edgar Hoover.

True, the best-known brother of that manic comedy team, always was popping off about society and puncturing pomposity. But Xsubversive? Well, if being opinionated and obnoxious is to be subversive, Groucho might have qualified.

His name hardly helped defend his reputation. How could the FBI justify Xnot opening a file on someone named Marx?

Recently disclosed documents show that Mr. Hoover's men gathered detailed materials on the comedian, ranging from a supportive quote about Alabama's condemned Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s to jokes made on TV in the '50s and '60s.

Most of the files on Groucho were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Jon Wiener, a history professor at the University of California. He says the FBI decided to do a "full review" of the comedian in 1953 when an informant said Groucho was a member of the Communist Party.

`Un-American' panel eyed Groucho's bandleader

Groucho, son of Jewish immigrants, grew up in Manhattan among people who considered socialism to be about as subversive as the Sabbath. He later became a member of Hollywood's liberal community, supporting left-wing causes.

In 1953, when old House Un-American Activities Committee was eager to find communists, Groucho's bandleader on his TV game show "You Bet Your Life," drew suspicions. The show's sponsors pressured Groucho to fire him.

Years later, the comedian wrote: "That I bowed to sponsors' demands is one of the greatest regrets of my life."

According to the FBI files, Groucho's pro-Soviet views were reported in the Communist Party newspaper the Daily Worker in 1934. It was filed away that in the 1940s he attended a benefit concert for Soviet war relief. And many viewers of his program were unhappy with his TV cracks. One FBI internal memo noting that Groucho's real name was Julius H. Marx was initialed by six officials.

Long before Groucho died in 1977, the FBI concluded that he was not a member of the Communist Party.

Professor Wiener says that it is difficult even to imagine the Communist Party's embracing a loose-lipped free spirit like Groucho, and we're inclined to agree.

Whether Groucho even wanted party membership might be debated. After all, it was he who insisted that, "I wouldn't belong to any club that would have me as a member."